Thinking about it, the fact he managed to find the kids before… the monster. No matter what she looked like… she was a monster.
But his escape turned out to be all but a miracle. With all adults turned into stone and nobody around to help take care of them, he'd taken to running around the ship to find whatever they needed to survive.
Baby food, medicine, random toys.
It wouldn't take much for him to hole himself up with food and a blanket. Wait out the storm until the ship reached… whatever place it was headed to.
But he couldn't abandon them.
He just… couldn't.
'I'm gonna have to think of something.' They were hidden for now, but there were just so many places they could stay at before they were found out. And even if he could explain to the kids that they couldn't look at the dangerous lady, she was still swinging around a hammer that nearly took his head off yesterday.
They wouldn't survive without him.
But he was barely surviving as it was.
He could find food, and there were clothes a plenty, but one of the kids needed medicine and that meant it was gonna run out eventually. There was just no way they could keep this up.
Especially when they were up against something clearly inhuman. Or at least supernatural.
Yes. Issei had put a great deal of thought into this problem and came to the conclusion that this wasn't a fever dream and it was actual reality… and that there was a woman aboard who was hunting down and turning people into stone. However impossible it was to believe it, there was no reasonable way he could think of explaining what happened the past three days.
No matter how you cut it, this wasn't normal.
So if the mundane was out of the picture, whatever was left had to be at least likely, right?
"Then the answer is obvious." Pulling out a notepad from his ruined backpack, Issei started noting down his thoughts. Drawing balloons around keywords as he linked them together.
Petrification.
Mirrors.
Pretty?
He crossed out the last word. Issei wasn't about to check her face, but the parts he did look at were very nice, yes. And it was her need to break mirrors, and the fact she could turn people into stone that allowed him to guess who this mysterious, otherworldly woman was.
It was obvious. Staring him right in the eye.
She was Dusa-chan, the main villainess from Doki Doki Monster Paradise 5!
How could he have been so blind? Not noticing it the first time around! The evil eyes that turn people into statues, the dislike of mirrors and downright shyness around them. Of course she was still missing the snake pets that would spy on people for her, but everything else fit.
It made complete sense!
What didn't make sense was how she ended up in the real world.
'Figures that rather than end up in another world like every other character, someone decided to drop a hardcore difficulty boss on me!' The world clearly had its favorites and Issei Hyoudou wasn't one of them!
But where did that leave him?
The only thing he could recall about the game was that you were supposed to help break her curse to land the secret ending. But if you didn't do a very detailed sequence of choices, you would only end up in the Friendzone and be forced to start over from scratch.
'Because she kills you on accident during the last battle.' Issei shuddered. Unfortunately it had been years since he played.
So what could he do?
They couldn't stay in the same place for long, not without risking being found. But they couldn't just try and leave either. They were just a bunch of kids, so putting them on a lifeboat wouldn't help. Even if he really wanted to run as far away from the scary monster lady as he could.
'I'd say its worth the risk, but what if she attacks from range? Could she smash the boat? Simply pick them off? How would they even get home?'
In the end, he couldn't choose to commit to that course of action out of fear.
'But is simply staying here any better?'
Maybe he could trigger her flags?
Convincing the hot villain girl not to kill you should be easier than romancing her like in the game… hopefully.
But how did the story go again?
Something about trespassing, her boyfriend, and an angry goddess? Issei never really cared about the backstory details for those games. What he did know was that her true ending had something to do with mirrors. In the game, Dusa-chan hated them and would steal and hide mirrors from other characters. Breaking them was kinda different, but if she was doing that maybe it was because there was more to it than just disliking them.
Maybe it had something to do with her powers?
"Man, I should have at least brought a console. At least then I could have tried to check." Who'd think that not being perverted for once would come back to bite him in the ass like that?
"You could just ask, you know?"
The teen sighed.
"Like that would work. I would get two words in before she splattered me against the wall." Leaning against the wall, Issei responded absentmindedly.
The was a hissing titter.
"Aww, you make me sound like an unreasonable brute."
Before startling awake.
A voice, a very familiar bone chilling voice, dragged him back from the verge of falling asleep. Looking around hurriedly, he couldn't see the lady anywhere, trying not to scare the kids as he steadied his breathing.
"Down here, boya."
Looking down, the teenager was faced with the terrifying sight of a snake as it slithered under the door, pitch black scales contrasting with strange glowing symbols that ran along its back. Golden eyes staring at him with a vague feeling of annoyance as it tasted the air.
"So this is where you've been hiding? And you didn't even invite me? For shame. Did your parents not teach you manners?"
Stepping back, Issei came to a chilling realization.
She found them.
"Run." His whisper was sharp, the children suddenly silent, frozen in place like a rabbit staring down a python. "Y-You followed me."
The snake tilted its head and the teenager managed to force himself to step closer, doing everything he could to physically interpose himself between the snake and the still frozen kids.
"Not at all. Skulking hallways, sniffing after a rat isn't dignified at all. As fun as cornering you would have been, I do have some pride. I just had to bring forth enough familiars to check every room."